Protest: Farmers waste milk in front of parliament

Fiercely resist reduction in import duty on milk powder

ISLAMABAD: In sheer frustration and protest against the government’s anti-agriculture and anti-dairy farming policies, hundreds of farmers associated with the Pakistan Kisan Ittehad threw thousands of litres of milk in front of parliament on Tuesday and chanted anti-government slogans.

They asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take a look at the Ministry of Finance’s policies that had deeply hurt the country’s dairy sector.

Pakistan Kisan Ittehad President Khalid Khokhar, while speaking to the protesters, said milk was being produced by millions of farmers and was cheaper than the water consumed by industries.

However, the farmers were unable to sell milk at reasonable prices as the government had opened the floodgates to skimmed milk powder and whey powder imports.

He said input cost for the dairy sector had risen manifold, but the government failed to protect the interest of farmers that ensured food security for the country.

Before the announcement of budget on June 5, the import duty on skimmed milk powder and whey powder was 20% for Saarc member states and 25% for the rest of the world. In the budget, the duty was further reduced by 5%, ignoring the demand for an increase in the duty to 100%.

Khokhar pointed out that the government kept on giving examples of Turkey’s development, but it should also note that Turkey had slapped 180% import duty on dry milk powder to protect its farmers and provided incentives to them in order to become self-sufficient in milk production.

The government has also imposed 5% general sales tax on dry milk for calves, mineral mixtures and premixes in feed for the cattle as well as increased import duty on these items from 5% to 10%.

“This will push up the cost of production for cattle breeders and dairy farmers, who are already burdened with high costs,” he said.

The government, through Finance Bill 2015, is also planning to impose 5% GST on cattle feed, which was zero until now.



Apart from the small farmers that constitute 8.5 million families, according to Khokhar, investments in commercial and corporate farms have come to a halt and many commercial farms have closed down.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th,  2015.

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